


The Haunting of Annette Fantine Dominic

by thir13enth



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, also fml, and in fact it turns into a multi chap, but then it is, felix being a creep as per usual, tfw you don't think your secret santa gift exchange is going to be that long
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:53:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21907777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thir13enth/pseuds/thir13enth
Summary: In which Felix takes stalking to a whole new level. Creepity-creep.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic/Felix Hugo Fraldarius
Comments: 4
Kudos: 37
Collections: Felannie Secret Santa Gifts of 2019





	The Haunting of Annette Fantine Dominic

**Author's Note:**

> for **carlos** as part of the felannie holiday gift exchange with the felannie discord chat. your love for annette is awe-inspiring.

He thinks of it as a sort of game, really.

How long can he listen to Annette’s singing before she notices? How close can he get behind her until she turns around?

He can’t help it. His ears prick up when he hears Annette’s voice, and his feet do the rest — following the sound of the melody until he’s close enough to make out the words, then close enough to see her casual spin, twirl, and pirouette between verses.

She’s cute when she’s singing to herself. Even cuter when she’s found out, especially while threatening to murder him in his sleep.

And she’s caught him several times. Felix gets too caught up thinking about the aftermath of the boom-ed library and waltz of the swamp-beasties that he completely forgets to duck his head back around the corner or tuck his foot back from behind the bush.

“Felix!” she always yells. “I hate you!” or “You’re so evil!” comes next. Then some bargaining and bribing for absolutely zipped lips about him witnessing the incident. He thinks it’s funny how she doesn’t seem to realize that practically everyone in Garreg Mach knows about Annette’s singing. Perhaps she didn’t realize exactly how much she sang throughout the day.

Either way, Felix finds no reason to complain. He could listen to her sing all day. And he hates to admit that her voice always seems to be in his head and he often finds himself humming her tunes to himself when he’s taking a shower or sharpening his sword or waiting impatiently for Sylvain to finish combing his hair before training. (Why Sylvain still cared about his vanity before practice is something Felix will never understand.)

Today is no different, except Felix now has much more experience in the art of staying unnoticed.

These days, he gets to hear the entirety of her song collection before she senses someone else in the room with her. Sometimes he’s even lucky enough to hear the beginnings of another new song in the making.

He peeks around the corner into the open doors of the greenhouse, spotting Annette crouched down at the flowerbed to the faraway corner in the back. She’s tending to the white and blue perennials, diligently picking away undesired sprouts of weeds with oversized garden gloves, all the meantime singing a tune to herself.

“Living in a land that's dark and blinded by the frigid cold... Creeping through the loneliness for ages untold... In your heart you're desperate for the sweet embrace of light...”

Ah, yes. Her gardening song. For all the time he’s spent thinking through the lyrics of this song, he still has absolutely no idea why or how the words to it come together. Regardless, he finds his lips quietly forming the words that follow.

“Pushing through and crawling with all of your might... _here_! Creepy creepy creepity creep... _now_! Creepy—” Suddenly her voice cracks, and she looks up from the ground, pausing for a moment.

Ah, his presence has been found out. Felix holds his breath.

After a few seconds of silence, she resumes digging at the dirt. She nervously starts singing again, this time a little slower and a little softer now. “Creepy… creepy… creepity creep...”

Felix makes sure to not make a single movement or a sound, waiting for her voice to eventually crescendo back to normal range. She starts her song again, with full gusto — indication that she’s already forgotten about the imminent threat of being discovered singing.

He looks up at the sky, realizing the sky is now a hell of a lot bluer than it was when he first settled down to listen to Annette’s singing. Must have been at least an hour or so since.

On this rather embarrassing realization, he decides maybe he should hurry along to training.

He steps backwards a few steps before walking forward to pass the greenhouse — so it looks like he just happens to be strolling by at normal speed and not like he’s been standing just behind the doorway.

As he paces by, surreptitiously glancing in her direction, he changes plans. Well, maybe he just can at least say hi to her. He pivots immediately, walking into the greenhouse and announcing himself as if he just happened to see her right then and there. And not like he was there for the past hour.

Right then.

“Hi Annette,” he greets.

“Creepy creepy creepity creep... _now_!”

As per usual, she doesn’t hear him right away. He carefully steps closer to her, until he’s standing just a few feet away.

“I hope I’m not interrupting,” he says, louder this time.

Her singing immediately cuts. She swivels around, so sharply that one of her pigtails falls out of its loops.

“Felix!” she shouts back at him, and then she clamors to get her hair back into place as she stands up to face him, dropping her gloves off her hands to catch the untied strands and quickly fix them. “You scared me!” she cries out, smoothing her hair out. She steps toward him, dragging her small feet forward in heavy gardening boots. “You didn’t hear anything, did you?”

He plays as unknowingly as possible. “I wouldn’t know what you’re talking about,” he replies, shrugging his shoulders.

Her eyes narrow. “You’re not funny! Don’t act like you don’t know!”

A smile breaks over his lips. “I really don’t,” he assures her.

She accepts his answer, but it’s obvious on her face she doesn’t trust his words.

Fuck. He can’t lie to her.

“I really don’t know what you mean by your creepy song,” he remarks. “Creepity-creep? What sort of beasts could you possibly be describing?”

“ _Felix!_ ” she yells. “So you _did_ hear me singing!”

“Your voice is hard to miss and easy to recognize,” he replies.

“You’re the _worst!_ ” she squawks, plastering an emphatic frown on her face. She points to the exit behind him. “Leave! I never want to see you again!”

He puts his hands up in front of him defensively. “Alright, alright,” he says, trying to mollify her. “I’ll leave.”

He still doesn’t understand why she’s so extreme about her singing. It doesn’t work out for him either way. If he lies that he didn’t hear her, she doesn’t believe him and gets mad at him — and at the same time, if he tells her the truth that he _did_ in fact hear her, she gets even madder at him. She doesn’t even appreciate his compliments about her singing, but he can’t imagine she would like it either if he told her that her singing is terrible.

Felix doesn’t understand. He can’t win.

“And don’t you _dare_ mention a thing about what you heard!” she threatens.

“I wouldn’t even think of it,” he affirms, stepping back and turning to exit.

“Good!”

Yeah, he should get to training. She wasn’t taking any of this well, and the more he says, the more he’d dig himself into a deeper grave. Yet, despite all this, he finds himself just awkwardly standing there for a full extra minute — as if he wants to say something to her but doesn’t have anything to say.

Annette seems to do the same, her aura growing less intimidating. 

“I guess I should go,” he finally announces, turning around.

“Um, Felix?” she suddenly blurts.

He turns back around — perhaps a little too overeager. There’s a light blush over her cheeks and her posture looks deferential, her hands clasped together.

Annette? Shy?

His heart skips a couple beats. He’s never seen her flustered like this before. A million and a half scenarios bubble up from the bottom of his brain, half from daydreamed scenes. Is she going to ask him to help her dust the bookshelves? Or maybe she’ll ask him to pull a stubborn weed in the greenhouse? Or maybe… in his wildest imaginations, she’ll sing him a song and ask him what he thinks of the lyrics?

Also, fuck.

Why is he like this? What is going on with him? Why does he think so… differently around her? This is not like him at all. And he does not like it one bit.

Wait, how much time passed since she called his name?

“Yes?” he quickly answers, in a half octave higher than he would like. Damn.

“Actually. While you’re here, I might as well ask you…” Her eyes look left and right before she steps in closer to him, her voice lowering. “What would you do if you think someone was watching you?”

The warm fuzziness in Felix’s heart sinks into a cold dread. “You think someone’s watching you?”

Annette bristles. “Don’t say it that loud!” she whispers harshly. She quickly looks behind her shoulder before stepping in another step closer to him and putting her hand on his arm. “I don’t know when I started noticing it, but the past couple of days I’ve been feeling like there are eyes on me! Like last night, when I was washing the dishes, I was just… you know, rinsing and drying the plates and suddenly I felt like someone else there in the kitchen with me — but I turned around and I didn’t see anyone!”

Felix suddenly realizes his eyes are still on his arm, where Annette’s hand is clutching him. He shifts his gaze back to her eyes, where he can see genuine fright. “Oh?” he simply responds.

“And then this morning when I was sweeping the hallways on the second floor, I felt a presence again! And I know I was alone, and I even called out ‘hello?’ to whoever might have been there because I thought maybe it was just someone that needed help with something but didn’t want to ask, but no one replied!” Annette’s voice increasingly becomes more staccato, and the terror in her eyes grows as she blabbers on. “Do you think it’s the same person? Or maybe it’s not a person? A ghost?”

She’s not wrong. He knows that he has very intentionally been lurking around without trying to get her to notice, and it’s maybe only now he realizes that perhaps that was actually quite creepy of him to do.

And what was he doing last night? Watching her rinse and dry the plates.

And what was he doing just this morning? Watching her sweep the hallways on the second floor.

And what did he do when she called out a hello? Skirted away.

He swallows. “Ghosts aren’t real,” he tells her.

What else is he going to say? That her senses were not that off at all and that in fact, _he who is standing right before her_ is the presence that she has been feeling all week?

She takes a sharp breath in and out. “You’re right, you’re right,” she repeats to herself, removing her hand from his arm and tucking her hands into her chest. She looks down to the floor, shuffling her feet, thinking to herself. She tilts her head back to him. “But I will admit that I’m a little scared,” she says. “I was wondering if you have time today to just… be around?”

His eyes widen. “You mean you want me to keep watch for you?”

A little spark of temper. “Well! You don’t have to put it _that_ way!” she retorts. “I’m just… I just need to get things done today! And I have a lot of things to do and I can’t afford to be distracted and unproductive because I have _so much_ to do.”

Adorable. Could he say no? There is always training, but… there is also always another day for sword practice. This is a very small favor. She wants him to protect her. In case something bad happened. Be her personal bodyguard for some time. She’d go through her day — studying hard in the library, sorting through the mail, tidying up the common area — and he’d just… hang out with her. All day. Maybe chatting a little bit about whatever idle topic came to mind, listening and nodding his head along as she complained about something, enjoying her spontaneous song and dance…

As he thinks it, he feels a heat rise in his cheeks.

“Of course,” he accepts in a beat, giving her his word. “I will make sure you are safe and can work completely uninterrupted.”

She brightens at this promise. “Thank you! I appreciate this, Felix.”

He accepts her gratitude, although he honestly thinks it should be the other way around.

And perhaps this is the irony of the situation — even more so than the fact he knows that without him in the picture, there for sure wouldn’t be other lurkers.

Or at least so he thought.

**Author's Note:**

> find me in misery:
> 
> twitter @ napsbeforesleep  
> discord @ ahumanintraining#2153


End file.
